Upgrading EntLib 4.1 to 5 with Oracle.DataAccess.Client

Question

Hello, I am upgrading a project from EntLib 4.1 to EntLib 5. I've skimmed through the Migration Guide, changed all the references and updated all the config files to point to EntLib 5. All worked fine accept Oracle database access. With the config file:

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="dataConfiguration" type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.Configuration.DatabaseSettings, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data, Version=5.0.414.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" requirePermission="true" />
  </configSections>
  <dataConfiguration defaultDatabase="prod">
    <providerMappings>
      <add databaseType="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data.Oracle.OracleDatabase, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data"
        name="Oracle.DataAccess.Client" />
    </providerMappings>
  </dataConfiguration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="prod" connectionString="Data Source=dev;User Id=dev;Password=dev;"
      providerName="Oracle.DataAccess.Client" />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

which worked with 4.1 all calls to DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase() fails with:

System.InvalidOperationException: The type Database cannot be constructed. You must configure the container to supply this value.

If I replace Oracle.DataAccess.Client with the Microsoft System.Data.Oracleclient it all works again, but is not full of ODP.net lovelyness. Does anyone know how to get this to work with EntLib 5?

Cheers, Mlk

Answer 1

It seams that the Oracle Installer will sometimes forget about the database provider factory which is installed in the machine.config. To fix this the following needs to be put in either the app.config or the machine.condig.

<system.data>
<DbProviderFactories>
<add name="Oracle Data Provider for .NET" invariant="Oracle.DataAccess.Client"
description="Oracle Data Provider for .NET" type="Oracle.DataAccess.Client.OracleClientFactory, Oracle.DataAccess, Version=2.102.2.20, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f429c47342" />
</DbProviderFactories>
</system.data>

I think this working in EntLib4 is that EntLib4 uses the previous version of the Oracle client (10.2.0.1 I think. Oracle numbering is odd).

Answer 2

More on setting up entlib at http://w3mentor.com/learn/asp-dot-net-c-sharp/c-asp-net/microsoft-enterprise-library-caching-block/